A Kiss in the Rain
by mak5258
Summary: An outside observation of a discreet relationship. Short and a bit melancholy.
1. Chapter 1

The first time she saw them, she was 11. They were kissing in the rain and it looked wet and uncomfortable. Their hair was sticking to their heads, their robes were soaked through. She didn't see the appeal.

She thought of it again when she was 14 and she desperately wanted Marvin Sanders to kiss her. She'd even take a cold, wet, uncomfortable kiss in a fall downpour.

It occurred to her over the summer—after receiving a handful of kisses from Marvin and deciding he wasn't all he was cracked up to be—that it was possible she'd caught them breaking the rules. Were teachers allowed to be _together_ like that? Was that why they'd been out in the rain? That actually made it almost romantic.

Every time she saw them together after that, she watched them and wondered. She'd looked up teacher relationship rules and hadn't found much at all. Discreet seemed to be the name of the game and that was all it said. Student–teacher relations took up a whole chunk of the section, with addendums listing out all sorts of punishments and repercussions.

The only thing that even hinted that what she had seen was a moment in a larger collection of moments was that _she_ was the only one _he_ talked to. They sat together, chatted sometimes; she even saw them split a croissant once.

They were alone together just outside her classroom one afternoon fifth year, but they were just talking about Kyle Kirby being an absolute disaster in both their classes.

Seventh year, she saw them again. He was smiling at her. He _never_ smiled. At all. Ever. Except at _her_ just before curfew when he thought they were alone, apparently. It was sweet.

It had to be love. It had to be. And they were certainly being discreet, what with her watching them her whole time at Hogwarts and only spotting them doing anything remotely _together_ -ish twice. And the second one was just smiling.

She didn't think about them much in any capacity during N.E.W.T.s and the-end-of-the-year rush. There was studying to do, job applications to submit.

Two years later, when the world was falling apart following the shattering of the Statute of Secrecy (via a video taken on a mobile and posted online, of all things), she thought of them again. Her boss sent her to a meeting, and it turned out he'd sent her to join the Order of the Phoenix.

There were the professors again, but this time not chatting or sharing croissants. _She_ was bickering with a Weasley—an attractive man, beginning to go gray in his beard—and _he_ stood in the corner looking hateful. She'd never seen them so far apart when they had the option to be closer.

Over the next hour, she began to understand. Things from History of Magic that she'd never properly matched up fell into place.

At no time had they ever just been professors. Never just a witch and a wizard, free to fall in love or not, free to be discreet.

 _He_ was Severus Snape, _the_ Severus Snape, famous for the love and loyalty he hid beneath the black robes and scowl. _She_ was Hermione Weasley, _the_ Hermione Weasley (Granger), famous for her part in destroying Tom "Voldemort" Riddle when she was a teenager, her wedding to _the_ Ron Weasley a close-second behind Harry and Ginny Potter's wedding for most-publicized nuptials in a century.

The Weasley she was fighting with—when she'd walked it, it had looked like bickering, but that wouldn't make Professor Weasley's hair spark with magic like that—was her husband. The two younger Weasleys at the end of the table were their children. And Professor Snape was by himself watching, not even sitting at the same table.

It made her incredibly sad.

* * *

 **A/N: As stated in the summary, this could be a (melancholy) one-shot, or the prologue to a longer fic. Let me know what you think either way via review or PM. I've listed it as Complete for now, but...**

 **Comments? Questions? Haiku?**

 **Cheers!**

 **— M**


	2. Chapter 2

"What's wrong?"

Hugo Weasley was her favorite Weasley. He was... up. Almost always upbeat, enthusiastic, optimistic. She'd been relieved when she'd been paired with him for the Order's plan for damage control. They blogged together, giving Muggles insight into what it meant to be a witch or wizard in modern times, with the added bonus that he'd grown up in a mostly magic household and she'd grown up in an entirely Muggle household.

"What?"

"Don't try it. Something's wrong; I can tell."

"It's papers day."

"What does that mean?"

Hugo sighed, and glanced around like he was worried somebody was watching them. He went so far as to flick his wand, nonverbally casting what was probably a privacy charm. It meant a lot that he was telling her after so little prompting. They'd only met a few months ago when she'd joined the Order. He'd been a seventh year when she was a first year; they had probably passed in the halls, but they'd never noticed each other.

"Every year on New Year's Day, Mum gives Dad divorce papers."

"What?"

"They had some clause in their marriage that a divorce had to be mutual unless infidelity, harm or one of a handful of other things could be proven." He sighed, and it was an old man sigh. "As you've probably noticed, all they do is fight."

"Doesn't she live at the school year-round?"

"Yes. She started teaching my fourth year, and my fifth year was when we finally convinced her to ask him to sign the papers."

" _You_?"

"Me and Rosie, yeah." He glanced at her, now looking sheepish. "I know. That's not how it's supposed to work, right? The kids are supposed to be upset."

"Yeah."

"They weren't a good match romantically. I've known it for as long as I've known that there's a difference between loving somebody and being in love with them. They love each other, and sometimes they have good days where they forget that they're married to each other. But they're not in love, and it… it's hard to watch."

"Why don't they divorce?"

"Mum wouldn't ask at first because it was comfortable. They were used to it; they were comfortable with their status quo even though they were kind of miserable. They didn't want to rock the boat, but when your teenagers tell you it's time to split up…"

If Professor Weasley had started asking for a divorce when Hugo was a fifth year, it would mean that kiss in the rain had happened after she'd asked at least twice. That made her feel a bit better about it—since she'd realized Professor Weasley was married, it hadn't sat right with her. Neither of them seemed the type for infidelity, but especially Professor Weasley. And watching them interact in the last few months it was clear that they were very good friends, but she was almost sure they weren't lovers. Were they holding the more respectable course? Had that kiss in the rain been the _only_ moment?

Did that make it better or worse? Professor Weasley and Professor Snape were clearly in love. She could see it in the way he looked at her when she talked. She could see it in the way she touched his shoulder when she brought him tea in the library and then quickly withdrew from the room like she was afraid she'd overstep some self-imposed line.

That was worse, surely. It was certainly sadder.

"But why don't they divorce? If they're both unhappy, why won't he sign the papers?"

"His pride, I think. He always said it was because of us, but we're both of age now. There can't be any fight over custody. I think he doesn't want the spectacle, the attention from the press."

"I always forget that your family is famous."

"Shut up."

"I think I saw your uncle in the society pages last week."

"You probably did."

"He had an _awful_ Muggle suit on. It was tartan."

"That'll be Uncle Percy, then? Or was it Uncle George?"

"He was liaising for something-or-another to do with the Reintegration Act. All the article talked about was how edgy his suit was, though."

"Definitely Uncle Percy."

She almost chuckled, but then felt the crackle of his privacy charm shattering. Professor Weasley breezed in looking calm and collected except for the tightness around her eyes. She through a sheaf of parchment into the fire and glared at it while it burned.

* * *

 **A/N: Obviously, I've opted to continue. I think there's one more chapter after this? We'll see.**


	3. Chapter 3

It had been all over the papers. Ron Weasley and Lavender Brown. Hugo and Rose telling the story in the _Prophet_ (and on the internet when the Muggles caught wind of the war hero scandal). Papers Day, all of it. The Weasley marriage dissolved in the space of a weekend.

It would have been worse if it was during term, Professor Weasley working at the school and all the gossip among the students. It was bad enough that the professor hadn't been able to stay at her own home after the news had broken; Hugo had gone to check on her and come back to the house with his mother in tow.

"This entire episode is ridiculous," Professor Weasley said, smiling at him when Hugo squeezed her shoulder. "And I really shouldn't impose… the two of you are just barely back from your honeymoon!"

"It's fine, Mum," Hugo said. "Really."

* * *

She saw them from the library. It was raining outside, a terrible fall downpour that cut through even the best Impervious Charm. She hadn't expected to see anything but mud and rainwater in the back garden.

For a moment, it was like she was a little girl again. She was eleven and they were standing out in the wet, and she was watching them. It was different now, though. It was Hugo in her life, not Marvin, and she knew what it felt like to be so lost in another person that the rain didn't even matter.

"The divorce went through this morning," Hugo said, startling her. "Well. They both signed the papers and it's all been sent to Records as of this morning. It takes time for it to be processed. Or whatever the term is."

"You knew about them?"

"Them?"

"Your mum and Professor Snape."

Hugo raised his eyebrows and looked over her shoulder through the window, then grinned.

"I knew there was somebody; I wasn't entirely sure it was him. He didn't seem to hate her, which is weird for him."

"He doesn't _hate_ everybody," she said.

"He certainly doesn't _like_ them."

"As long as he likes _her_." She was fond of her mother-in-law, after all.

"Seems to," Hugo said, drawing her away from the window and waggling his eyebrows. She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help the smile the crept across her face. "Kind of how I like _you_ , Mrs. Weasley."

* * *

 **A/N: And that's the end.**


End file.
